Midnight Illusions
by Etcha
Summary: A young Arthur befriends a young Alfred and one day saves him from a burning building. Years later Arthur returns to the town to discover that it's become a ghost town, covered in a hazy mist. AU Hetalia that's heavily based on Silent Hill.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes:**

**Well, here is another fanfic. This time it's an AU Hetalia that's heavily based on Silent Hill. I want this to be a horror fanfic (I've been meaning to have a go at doing some horror/gore) but also some comedy along the way. Kind of like Shaun of the Dead, I guess. Well, I hope I manage to achieve in doing a dark/gory comedy fanfic because I've never done something like this before. Wish me luck, yeah? But I just would like to apologize in advance that there isn't much horror/comedy in the first and second chapters of this fanfic, really it's just some drabble friendship fluff between little Alfred and Arthur, but I guess I'm just building the story up to the good horror Silent Hill stuff. Oh, and this story was written for the kink-meme request page of the LJ Hetalia community. Somebody on there requested for a Hetalia/Silent Hill crossover and I thought that it would be interesting to do, because I had been meaning to do an Hetalia fanfic but I didn't want to write anything that had pretty much been done before, you know? Well, I certainly hope that this kind of Hetalia fanfic hasn't been done before. Anyways, on to the story…**

**EDITED: 05/09/11**

**I've decided to change the story round a bit, but hopefully not too much. Just explaining the reason why you might see this on your e-mail notification because I've edited this chapter. I'm also going to edit the other chapters too. So yeah, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this! I felt the story needed a revamp after plotting over things, you know? Although, I haven't changed a lot for this chapter…**

* * *

**Midnight Illusions**

**Chapter 1**

Alfred F. Jones never had a happy childhood in his short life. From his earliest memories he couldn't remember ever having a mother or father. He wasn't even sure if he had a name. In his earliest memories, all he could remember was waking up to being surrounded by trees and woodland critters.

Alfred had then been discovered by some people, finding the naked toddler wondering around the forest that was on the outskirts of their town. Nobody knew what had happened to the poor boy, but the people took the boy back to their town with him anyways.

Due to the boy not knowing who he was, the town decided to give him a name. It took him a while to learn his name, let alone the English language because of his isolation in the forest.

Soon after the boy was taken in by the local orphanage, they discovered that the boy had massive strength, like it was super strength!

Upon the staff and other orphans seeing the young Alfred holding up a bed all by himself, they instantly labeled Alfred as being weird and a freak. And with the mystery of how Alfred was discovered, everyone began to call the boy a demon and tormented him.

The other orphans excluded him from joining in on any games, picked on him, called him names and beat him. Even the staff members of the orphanage felt uncomfortable around the boy and one or two of them were cruel enough to purposely blame Alfred for what the other orphans had done. As a result, Alfred would get punished for the false accusations. Usually they would lock him up in a cell for days without sunlight and be constantly watched, but there was one time when Alfred had been wiped because he had been accused of stealing. It was almost like they _enjoyed_ picking on the poor boy.

When Alfred was brought to the town, he thought his life would change and that he would be surrounded by warming love and make friends. But the minute he arrived he felt those hopeful, happy thoughts shatter and crumple before him and his heart sank. Naturally, the boy felt hatred and anger at how everyone mistreated him. He wondered what he had done to receive such terrible treatment, and even sometimes he wondered if maybe he did deserved to be treated in such a way, maybe he really was a freak, which just depressed the poor boy when such thoughts occurred in his mind.

The boy often felt lonely – oh so very lonely – and he only wished to have a friend who wouldn't be mean to him. Would he forever be treated this way by everyone he met? Would he be doomed to be alone forever in isolation?

No, Alfred didn't want to think such depressing thoughts! Despite his gloomy life, he was determined to think hopeful that one day things will look better for the golden haired, blue eye boy.

Well, the little boy was now a seven year old boy and was currently on the soft ground that belonged to a local park in the town. The boy's small body was hurting, and his face clearing expression the pain his body felt. No doubted he knew that there will be bruising on his body by now to add to his collection.

Suddenly a small fist came out of nowhere and struck Alfred's right cheek, causing the boy to cry out with pain upon feeling the terrible unpleasant, hurting sensation. He then felt numerous hits from the feet that surrounded him as they began to attack his body hard. They kicked and stomped on him with Alfred covering his head with his arms to try and protect himself, all the while screaming out loud for them to stop. But he already knew it would just be an ineffective thing to say against his attackers. By now, Alfred would have thought he would be use to the pain, but he doubted he ever really would, no matter how much abuse he received. Life was defiantly not looking better for Alfred.

That was, until an unfamiliar voice was heard.

"Oi! Leave him alone you little twats!" yelled the voice angrily. To Alfred, that voice sounded like it was from the heavens themselves, like from an angel – an angel that had saved him from the clutches of the bullies.

"Oh shit! Run for it!" Alfred heard one of the boys say and then he heard feet running away from him, the sound becoming further and further away while a new set of feet could be heard coming towards him.

"You pricks! Don't think you're going to get away with this!" the mysterious voice yelled at the boys before the voice then became slightly gentle.

"Hey, are you alright?" the voice said with concern to Alfred, noting that the voice had an accent to it. Alfred opened his eyes and slowly sat up and lifted his gaze to the person who had spoken to him. He saw before him a boy that looked a few years older than Alfred. He had sandy blonde hair and the most amazing emerald green eyes that he had ever seen, along with the biggest pair of eyebrows that he had ever seen also. The older boy was looking down at the boy with obvious concern for his well being. Alfred stared up at him in wonder. So this was the person that had rescued him. He was his savoir.

"Are you an angel?" the boy asked him innocently. The older boy's expression suddenly changed to that of surprised at being asked such a question but quickly changed to amusement as he chuckled quietly.

"No, I'm not an angel," he replied in a strange accent, smiling at the boy. Alfred saw the smile was not one of mocking, deviousness or insolent smirking that the boy was so use to seeing on people's faces. The other boy's smile was that of a gentle, genuine smile, the type of smile that Alfred hardly had experience with. And that honest smile set Alfred's heart soaring with such a positive, happy feeling that it brought a wide, happy smile onto his adorable, chubby face.

"Well, thank you very much for saving me! I'm Alfred!" the boy chirped up enthusiastically. The other boy blushed.

"Urm, you're welcome, I imagine anyone else would have done the same thing. It wouldn't have been right if I just stood aside".

Alfred shook his head slightly. "No they wouldn't, they would had just let them beat me" he responded honestly. "It always happens, nobody likes me in this town...they call me a demon" he said, looking down sadly.

The boy looked at the younger one with sympathy. "I'm sure they don't-, " he began but Alfred cut him off.

"But they do! I know they do! I get in trouble all the time and get picked on and no one lets me play with them!" he said with aggravation, feeling tears in the corner of his eyes.

"H-Hey! Please don't cry, Alfred," the older boy said, feeling a bit anxious at seeing the younger boy getting upset. He gently placed a hand on Alfred's shoulder.

"Listen, how about we go to my house? I don't mean to gloat but my mother makes a wonderful cup of tea, if I do say so myself". Alfred looked back up at the older boy with the big eyebrows.

"Really?" Alfred asked hopefully, that wide, happy smile suddenly back on his face. "I've never been to anyone's house before!" he added excitedly. He wondered what his house was like.

The older boy smiled, chuckling quietly at how adorable the younger boy was. "Well, come on," he said and offered his hand out to the small boy, which Alfred happily took.

"Hey, I never got your name." Alfred mentioned as the two boys walked out of the park, hand in hand.

"Oh, it's Arthur. Arthur Kirkland." the older boy replied, looking down at the smaller one.

"Arthur..." Alfred repeated slowly to himself. His name reminded Alfred of the story of King Arthur.

"Hey, so does this mean we're friends?" Alfred asked Arthur with hopeful excitement. Arthur looked down at the younger boy with a surprised expression on his face.

"Fr-Friends?" Arthur repeated as he felt the blood rush to his cheeks. He had never had a friend before. Well, except for his unicorn and fairy friends, but never a human friend before. But the idea of having Alfred as a friend felt..._nice_. Yeah, he actually liked the idea of having Alfred for a friend! Maybe he could even show Alfred his unicorn and fairies sometime.

Arthur smiled genuinely at Alfred. "Yes, let's be friends!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:**

**Oh my God, I am SO sorry that this chapter took so bloody long! I was kind of having trouble writing it half way through. Plus college, drawing, Gaia and playing video games have been keeping me away from writing this. Hopefully you guys aren't too mad with me and hopefully the next chapter won't take so long to write. I seem to have episodes where I feel like drawing rather than writing, and then I have days where I feel like writing rather than drawing. It's weird. **

**I apologize beforehand if this chapter was not what you guys were expecting and if it leaves you guys disappointed with the process of the story. But FYI, the next chapter will be taking place 10 years+ later where we see Arthur all grown up, plus we'll be seeing more Hetalia characters (I just hope I don't screw up their personalities).**

**Also, it would be nice if anyone who reads this could give me some plot ideas for the story or discuss them, because I don't really know where I'll be going with this, I'm just making this up as I go along (although there is a few things that I want to happen later in the story) plus my knowledge of Silent Hill is not all that great, because I've only played the 4th and 5th game of the series, but I have been looking at game play footage of the older games on YouTube and the Wikipedia pages to help me. But I still fear that they'll be some plot holes later in the story and won't do any justice for the fans of the Silent Hill series, you know? Maybe I'm worrying too much…But yeah, some help with the story would be very much loved~**

**EDITED: 05/09/11**

**I've decided to change the story round a bit, but hopefully not too much. Just explaining the reason why you might see this on your e-mail notification because I've edited this chapter. I'm also going to edit the other chapters too. So yeah, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this! I felt the story needed a revamp after plotting over things, you know? Although, I haven't changed a lot for this chapter…**

**Midnight Illusions**

**Chapter 2**

Arthur knew what it was like to be picked on by other children and to be socially excluded by them just because he was different. He had often wondered that maybe it was why he had felt drawn to Alfred and had become his friend – because they both could empathize with each other about being social outcasts among the town. They could relate to one another in some way or another, causing Arthur to feel like they had a special friendship that was superior to anyone else's friendships in the town of Silent Hill. Alfred was like the little brother Arthur never had, especially as Arthur was the youngest child out of his four half-brothers. And because Alfred was an orphan and had no one, Arthur felt like it was his duty as the role of an 'older brother' to teach Alfred the things he knew and to protect him.

There was one time when Arthur was trying to teach Alfred how to ride a bike. "Let go, let go!" Alfred had told Arthur as he rode on his bike with the other boy holding on to it. But the younger boy was feeling confident with himself that this time he wouldn't fall over sideways like so many times before when they had practice. So Arthur did as he was told and let go of the bike.

"Ahhh! Don't let go, don't let go!" said a panicky Alfred as he quickly changed his mind when Arthur had let go of the bicycle. The bike swayed slightly but it didn't completely topple over to one side. Instead, in his panicky state, Alfred tried his best to make the bike stay upright and had managed to succeed.

"Hey! Hey look, I'm riding it!" Alfred said happily to Arthur with a smile to match as he continued riding on the bike. Arthur had felt so proud of the young boy on that day. And then there were a few times when Arthur had stood up for Alfred against some thick-headed bullies, which of course lead to Arthur getting into quite a few fights, usually involving him against more than one person. But despite that Arthur still fought with all his might. Arthur was never really the type to back away from a fight, especially if it was to fight for a good cause behind it, and in this case it was to protect Alfred from getting beaten. This of course often resulted in Arthur covered in cuts and bruises and a scolding from his mother when he got back home for getting into fights. Understandable Alfred became upset and worried with Arthur getting beaten up because of him.

"I-I'm so sorry Arthur! It-It's a-all my f-fault!" Alfred sobbed to Arthur after yet another beating from the bullies.

"Hey don't cry Alfred, I'm okay" the older boy tried to gently reassure him, forcing a smile as he stroked the younger boy's blonde hair.

"It's not your fault that there are so many pricks like them in the world" he added as he poked his thumb over his shoulder to where the bullies had been seen a few moments ago walking away from the two boys. Oh, wait, maybe Arthur shouldn't have swore like that in front of Alfred just now. He didn't want to set a bad example for him and have the younger boy start swearing too. Oh well, it was too late to go back on it now. And those bullies _were_ pricks after all; he was only telling the truth.

"Besides, I'm use to taking a beating; my brothers do it to me all the time".

"Wha! Your brothers beat you up?" Alfred exclaimed in shock, now no longer sobbing. Arthur gave an odd, clueless look at the younger boy.

"Well...yeah, sometimes" was Arthur's simple reply. He wondered why the younger boy was so shocked.

"But, that's terrible! I thought brothers were meant to love each other!" Alfred exclaimed, his eyes wide. The younger boy was sure glad that he didn't have any siblings.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders slightly and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I guess it's just something that brothers do is all...or rather _my _brothers do" he corrected himself. "But, they're not always bad; there are times when we can get on really well with each other" he added on a more positive note.

Arthur and his brothers use to fight, pick on, make fun of and gang up on one another; it was just something that brothers were like with each other. But the boys weren't always like that with each other, they were times when the boys could get along, hang out together and just have fun. Arthur was sure that deep down his brothers really loved him; they just didn't fancy showing it and neither did Arthur, to be honest.

Arthur use to visit Alfred at the orphanage just about every day after school and on the weekends. The two boys would often hang out at Arthur's house or play outside. Arthur knew how much Alfred hated being at the orphanage, yet the small boy didn't want to get adopted in case he would be taken far away from the older boy. Arthur didn't wish for that to happen either, the boy knew how devastated he would be if Alfred was taken away from him, he was the closest person Arthur had to a real friend.

Well actually, more like a best friend, although Arthur would never admit that out loud, for he had a feeling that if he did, a few of his fairy friends wouldn't be very pleased about that. He knew some of them were a little jealous of his friendship with Alfred, because he had been friends with them ever since he could remember. On the other hand, his unicorn, named Charlie, was pleased for the young boy to finally have a real friend.

A part of Arthur was hopeful that Alfred would be able to see his mythical friends, but another part of him was rather sceptical that the younger boy wouldn't. After all, no one else could see them (not even his own family could!) so why should Alfred be an acceptation? So, when Arthur one day had introduced Alfred to the mythical beings, Arthur was rather surprised that the young boy _could_ actually see them.

The older boy was so happy that day that he could've cried – but he didn't. Well, okay, maybe he did a tiny bit, but he quickly wiped the tears away before Alfred noticed and beamed brightly. Alfred instantly took a liking to the mythical creatures and enjoyed playing with them. For once, Arthur had someone that could see the magical beings too, making him feel that he wasn't so alone anymore about his special ability.

Arthur had been so sure that the two boys would be friends and be together forever, but little did Arthur know how wrong he really was…

It had happened during the summer time, on a warm evening. It had been a normal day, nothing out of the ordinary. Arthur and his family were at the dinner table of their home and was having dessert when there was a knock at the front door. Arthur felt that it was rather odd that someone was knocking on their door at this time of the day, and he had the feeling the rest of his family were thinking the same thing.

The person at the door ended up being a police officer and he urgently told the family to evacuate the house immediately due to a forest fire that had broken out near the town. Hearing this worrying news, Arthur's thought instantly turned to Alfred. Were he and the other orphans being evacuated too? Was the younger boy alright? Oh God, what if…

Arthur then quickly shook his head as if to get rid of such distressing thoughts, thinking that it would do him no good and would only make him become more upset and anxious for Alfred's safety. But that still didn't stop the twisting feeling of concern within his gut.

The Kirkland family were taken to a high school that was on the other side of the town so it was farthest away from the forest fire. The school's huge gymnasium was being used to resident some of the town's people that had already been evacuated from their homes.

When Arthur's family arrived, Arthur instantly went to look around the gym, searching for the little blonde hair, blue eyes boy that always had a stubborn bit of hair sticking up. But Arthur became even more concerned when he couldn't see Alfred anywhere. He had even asked around to see if anyone had seen him, but it proved to be futile.

That was until he noticed a boy that he vaguely recognized as another orphan that he had seen a few times when he had visited the orphanage. Thinking that if another orphan was here, then surely Alfred could be close by, right?

"Excuse me," Arthur spoke politely to the boy as he approached him, "but have you seen a boy around your own age with blonde eye and blue eyes? He's called Alfred".

The boy informed him that he knew Alfred and the boy said that Alfred was back at the orphanage.

Just like that, Arthur's fears for Alfred had come true – he was still back at the orphanage while a forest fire was raging on nearby! "What! Why the bloody hell is he still at the house when there's a dangerous fire going on! That idiot!" Arthur snapped at the other boy, although it was mostly out of fear and concerned for Alfred rather than anger. But Arthur instantly felt guilty for yelling at the other kid like that when it was not his fault, but he felt that there wasn't any time to apologize – he had to go and save Alfred!

"I have to save him!" Arthur declared seriously as he turned round to leave. "W-Wait!" suddenly someone called out and he felt a hand grab the fabric of his T-shirt, causing Arthur to look back at the boy that he had just spoken to. "You can't go out there, it's dangerous" the other boy said, a look of concern on his face for the older boy. Arthur paused for a very brief moment as he met those eyes, almost giving in to the plea and staying where he was just by the look ; but he stubbornly shook his head quickly in reply. "I have to, I'm all Alfred has got and he needs me!"

And just like that, Arthur left and managed to sneak out of the building without any of the adults noticing him. Thanks to playing sneaky games like hide and seek for a long time, Arthur had become very good at using stealth and sneaking around.

He ran down the street to where he knew the orphanage was. _Please God, please let Al be alright!_ Arthur mentally begged desperately as he ran as fast as his legs would allow him to and feeling the cool night air against his skin.

When Arthur got near to where the orphanage was, he could already feel a painful stitch in his side and it felt like his heart had gone to his throat when his eyes could already see an orange glow and a lot of smoke. Arthur stopped when he got to the house, panting and his eyes wide with a look of horror on his face at the sight before him, seeing the building of the orphanage engulfed in angry orange flames, the fire looking even more threatening and frightening against the blackness of the night sky.

"ALFRED!" Arthur screamed loudly with fear and distress as he felt tears forming in the corners of his eyes, thinking that his dearest friend had most likely perished in the burning building by now. Arthur fell on his knees and hands on the grassy ground and a soft sob could be heard coming from his mouth with his head hanged low.

Suddenly he heard a scream through the roar of the fire and looked up in alarm at the house. "HELP!" the person screamed, Arthur recognizing the voice belonging to Alfred.

_Bloody Hell; he's still alive!_

Arthur quickly sprang back on his feet and ran forward towards the blazing house, no longer thinking straight or about his own safety; only thinking about saving Alfred from dying a painful and agonizing death. Even from just outside the entrance he could feel the dangerous, intense heat from the flames inside.

"Alfred!" Arthur cried out as he entered the burning orphanage; adrenaline pumping through his veins, surrounded in the grey smoke and orange glow and heat of the flames as it continued to perish everything in its wake. As he breathed in the smoke, Arthur started to cough and he quickly used the collar of his T-shirt to cover his mouth and nose in an attempt to try and lessen the smoke from getting into his lungs.

"ARTHUR!" he heard Alfred scream for him, the sound of fear and desperation clear in the younger boy's tone. Arthur quickly located where the voice was coming from and followed it with determination, being careful to not let the flames of the fire catch his skin or clothes. He quickly ran upstairs to the second floor and entered a room where Arthur knew was where most of the orphans slept. He saw Alfred was sitting on the floor at the foot on one of the beds with his hands bound and chained against the leg of the bed. Who the hell had tied the poor boy up? But Arthur did not wonder about it for long, considering that he had more pressing and serious matters at the moment if they did not want to die right here. He quickly untied Alfred from the bed as fast as his trembling hands were able to. As he did, Arthur noticed Alfred had become unconscious and there were dark, red and black marks on the younger boy's arms and legs that looked like burns.

_Crap, I didn't realize Alfred was so badly hurt_ Arthur thought with concern and even a bit of guilt as he carefully lifted Alfred's small body into his arms with all the strength that he had and then made his way out of the building as fast as he could.

Arthur managed to stumble out of the burning orphanage and he fell on his knees on the damp grass outside. He placed Alfred gently on the ground as the older boy started to cough all of the carbon dioxide out of his lungs, his eyes stinging from the aftermath of the smoke. He lay down next to Alfred, welcoming the feel of the cool grass against his body, and feeling relief and glad Alfred was alive. But if Alfred would recover from his burns was a questionable matter. In the distance, Arthur was vaguely aware of hearing the sound of sirens that seemed to be getting closer.

"Ar…thur" came Alfred's sore voice and the younger boy began to cough, finding it difficult to speak and tears were the corners of his eyes. "Shhh, Alfred. Don't speak, the ambulance will be here soon" Arthur replied, trying to comfort him as he looked at Alfred into his big blue eyes that he adored so much as the fire engine and ambulance arrived on the scene. "I'm just glad you're alive" he added with a rare, tender smile.

Suddenly something caught Arthur's eye. He looked over at the burning building and he saw a silhouette of a person standing at the entrance, the flames dancing behind the person and he could sense the unseen eyes of the mysterious figure glaring at the two boys. But in the blink of an eye, the person had disappeared and Arthur couldn't help but wonder if it had been the trick of the mind as the paramedics rushed to the boys' aid.


	3. Chapter 3

**Midnight Illusions**

**Chapter Three**

Arthur opened his eyes, the sunlight from outside the window of his small apartment hitting his vision. It caused his head to explode with pain and also behind his eyes. He groaned and tried to lesser the brightness using his arm to cover his vision from the light.

"Fuck!" he hissed as he sat up and rubbed his eyes, wincing in pain from his headache that felt like big hammers were hitting it from the inside. It hurt badly; his mouth had the bitter nasty aftertaste of a mixture of alcohol and vomit and he felt exhausted despite it being three in the afternoon.

All the symptoms of a hangover.

_Shit, I'm never drinking again _Arthur mentally declared as he ran a hand through his sandy-blonde hair; although he knew that he was just lying to himself and deep down he knew that by next Friday, he'll go out, hit his local bar and get absolutely wasted once again like every other Friday night. _Well at least I didn't get into another fight again…_

Arthur sighed and got to his feet, rising himself up from the slightly worn cream coloured couch that had been his temporary bed when he had arrived home last night.

He went into his tiny kitchen to get a glass of water and to take a painkiller or two to try and ease the pain in his head.

He popped the small white tablets in his mouth and drank the tall glass of water down in one to quince his thirst, ending with a satisfied sigh as a signal that the water had done its job of getting rid of his dehydration.

The male sighed deeply, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger to try and lessen the pain of his headache from the hangover. He then lowered his arm and deciding to head to the bathroom after realizing that he needed to relieve himself.

After using the toilet and had washed his hands, Arthur lifted his gaze to the mirror in front of him that hung over the sink.

His skin looked pasty, there were dark shadows under his emerald green eyes, his hair looked messier than usual and there were a few stains on his clothes that only God knows where they came from. Arthur didn't want to think of the horrible possibilities of what those stains could be. And of course his huge eyebrows was the most noticeable thing on his face, although that wasn't because of the alcohol, they have always looked like that since he could remember.

His face and body was no longer that of a child from thirteen years ago but had grown up into a twenty three year old man. He remembered a time during his teenage years when he got so fed up of getting bullied for the size of his eyebrows that he ended up plucking and waxing them to make them less big and more of a normal size. It hurt like hell but the teenage Arthur at the time thought that it was worth it so he wouldn't have to deal with the jerks that gave him so much stick about them. Unfortunately for Arthur, the very next day he discovered that his eyebrows had grown back to their original size! Needless to say, he had not been very happy about that. Since then Arthur has just given up on trying to tame his eyebrows and just left them be.

As well as feeling like crap, Arthur looked like crap too, thanks to the hangover. Understandable it didn't put him in a good mood. _Maybe having a shower will make me feel bloody better _he thought moodily.

Arthur stripped off his dirty clothes, turned the shower on and then stepped inside the bathtub after waiting for a minute or two for the water to become warm. The water felt refreshing on his skin and made him feel just a little bit less tired. He closed his eyes as he allowed the water to fall over him and began to reminisce about the dream that he had been experiencing for a week now, the same dream that he just had only minutes ago before he woke up. As he thought about it, it began to make his headache feel worse.

It was always the same. He would dream he was sitting on a swing that was part of a swing set, the swing set being in that very same playground where he use to play with Alfred all the time those thirteen years ago.

But there was no Alfred beside him and no other children playing. The sky was gray and dark, making everything look dull in colour, the trees were stripped of their leaves, leaving them bare and the braches looking like creepy, skinny skeleton hands ready to grab you and tear you to pieces and he could hear the haunting, moaning sound of the cold wind as it blew through the playground.

The Arthur in his dream would shiver from the cold and he would feel lonely…oh so very lonely. Then suddenly the scene would change and he would find himself in a strange, dark place. Surrounding him were walls covered in rusty-brown that also looked like they were bloodstained with fenced floors underneath him and chains and corpses littered the area. The air felt thick and heavy, making it hard for Arthur to breath.

His gaze looked down to his right hand and he saw he was carrying a gun. The metal felt cold and menacing to the touch of his flesh, yet it felt strangely familiar, like déjà vu.

_What is this place? Where am I?_ Arthur wondered as he walked through the strange world. Soon he found himself standing at the edge of a large hole within the floor. Arthur looked down but he couldn't see anything, it was pitch black down there. Yet strangely, something felt like it was telling him, _urging_ him to leap down there. And that was what Arthur did.

Suddenly he was falling down the black hole at an alarming speed, all the while hearing Alfred's voice (or at least that was what his mind was telling him that it was meant to be Alfred's, although he did not fully recognize it, yet it did sound strangely familiar. Maybe it was his mind coming up with what Alfred's voice might sound like now) crying his name out as if he was scared, his voice echoing all around him.

And those blue eyes…Arthur always remembered those eyes very clearly staring at him with an eerie strangeness.

Even in the shower with the warm water lashing over his body, the very memory of them sent a shiver down Arthur's spine and caused goose bumps to appear on his skin. After Arthur would wake up from the dream, he would get an uneasy feeling he couldn't shake off. He sensed that Alfred was in trouble or that something bad had happened to the younger boy.

Arthur suddenly had the strange sensation that he was being watched, yet he knew none of his mythical creatures were in the bathroom. If they were, would have alerted him that they were there. He frowned and quickly tried to not think about his dream or the feeling that someone was watching him as he washed himself using the soap, thinking that it was just his imagination.

Arthur hated the feeling of loneliness, but he has been feeling like that for a very long time since he had left Alfred. He had his fairy friends and Charlie his unicorn, but he secretly thought that sometimes they just weren't the same in comparison to human company. There were just some things that mythical creatures just didn't understand about the daily life of humans and their behaviour.

Arthur had tried to make friends in the past but he found the whole making friends process to be awkward and embarrassing for him. It certainly wasn't the same when he and Alfred met all those years ago. How the hell were you meant to start a conversation with strangers without them thinking you're a creepy weirdo or looking like a babbling fool?

Arthur had just too many bad experiences (especially during his wild teenage years) trying to make friends that it felt like the whole world was against him. He eventually gave up on it and stayed in his own little world, he thought he was better off alone.

Although…the young Japanese man that lived next door to him seemed like a nice guy, even if Arthur couldn't tell what he was thinking most of the time. But Arthur was sure that he just saw him as the drunken guy that lived next door to him and nothing more.

It had been thirteen years since he had last seen the bright blue eyed boy that was Alfred F. Jones.

After the fire incident, Alfred had been abruptly rushed to the hospital in the ambulance but Arthur had been rejected to go with him. So Arthur had been forced to wait restlessly in his bed back at the evacuation centre until morning. But when the morning came, it turned out that the Kirkland's home had been destroyed, along with four other houses within their neighborhood, destroying everything they had. So the Kirkland family had to move back to England to live with relatives until they could get back on their feet again.

When Arthur found out, he wanted to kick, scream and throw a giant tantrum, but he knew it wouldn't make much of a difference and like it or not, he was leaving.

Arthur didn't even have time to say goodbye to Alfred, let alone if he was alive and well after the incident with the fire. But he had no way of finding out as his family and he soon left the town and the country to head back to England.

Even now Arthur still felt guilty for leaving Alfred without saying goodbye, even though it wasn't entirely his fault. But looking back, Arthur felt that he at least could maybe have done more to see Alfred before he had to leave.

Arthur wondered how Alfred was doing. He would be nineteen years old, perhaps maybe going on to college by now. Arthur remembered when they were children and Alfred told him that he wanted to one day fly in the big blue sky. He wondered if Alfred had kept chasing onto that childhood dream and was now aiming to becoming a pilot. Even as a child Alfred was always fascinated by airplanes.

A soft smile spread on Arthur's face as he fondly remembered past memories of him and Alfred. _Maybe I should go back there soon to see him_ he thought. He just hoped Alfred didn't hate him or anything for leaving him without saying a word all those years ago. Maybe he had even forgotten about him, although Arthur hoped he hadn't. Since leaving Alfred, he had never left Arthur's mind and he often thought about him.

However, he knew saving up enough money to go back to America would be tough.

Due to him getting numerous arrests for his violent drunken behavior in the past and petty thieving as a teenager, he had obtained a criminal record and therefore he could only work in a low paid job, working at a supermarket. It wasn't the most successful job that Arthur had been hoping to achieve when he was younger, his job being greatly frustrating and repetitive for the British man.

He had dreamed of being an English teacher or becoming a bestselling author. But unfortunately his foolish, alcoholic behavior during a teenager when he had associated himself with the wrong people had taken that away from him; and he now regretted it significantly.

It was only after Arthur had got a jail term for a few months for his crimes did it finally wake him up and realized how much pain he was causing his family because of his behavior. Only then did he stop contact with all the wrong people that he knew, wanting to start a new life for himself that wasn't filled with illegal activities like beating people, stealing and dealing and doing drugs. That had been five years ago. There were days where he wished that he could turn back time like the Doctor and his TARDIS and correct what he had done, but knew it would be impossible.

Arthur was well aware that he was a disappointment to his family, his brothers having more successful and higher paying jobs than him with no criminal record what so ever. He guessed that was why he hardly ever saw his family except for at Christmas and New Year, feeling bitter and jealous towards his brothers when they gloat shamelessly in his face about yet another promotion and feeling his mother's pity gaze on him. He absolutely _loathed_ those times, but he only made an effort to go for his mother when she would beg him to come over.

Arthur turned the shower off, got out of the bathtub and grabbed a clean towel to dry himself with, his mood now feeling less grumpy. After he had dried himself and had brush his teeth only then did Arthur leave his bathroom; completely naked with only the towel on around his neck where he had been drying his hair off. Well, it was his own apartment and nobody else was around, so Arthur didn't see why he wasn't allowed to walk around butt-naked in his own home. Actually, he often walked around naked, even when talking on the phone.

_I think I'll go out for a walk _Arthur thought as he walked into his bedroom and took a quick glance outside the window and saw that it looked like it was a nice spring day. He felt he needed to do something to clear his head.

He picked out his clothes from his wardrobe and drawers and soon he had got dressed into a pair of black dress pants with white socks covering his feet, a brown colored sweater vest with a clean ironed white dress shirt underneath.

Arthur wasn't the most trendy and fashionable dresser in the world and usually wore clothes that he felt the most comfortable in and weren't so expensive. He usually liked to dress as casually smart. Arthur wanted to portray the image that he was indeed an English gentleman (although the very few people that knew Arthur well would flat out deny that he wasn't one, knowing full well about the Brit's quick fiery temper, potty mouth and secret perversions).

After putting his black polished shoes on did Arthur then leave his bedroom and casually walked to his door. However when he got there he suddenly stopped when his eyes noticed a strange sight. His door…was just about completely covered in chains and it was from the _inside_!

"What…the hell?" Arthur spoke to no one particular, frowning as his green eyes stared at the door. If it was from the inside, then that must mean that there was an intruder in his apartment!

Arthur suddenly whirled round and observed his surroundings to look for any movement of the person that had broken into his home, his emotions suddenly becoming that of suspicion, paranoia and fear from the situation, feeling his heart beating hard against his chest from the apprehension and feeling his palms becoming sweaty. He could not see another person in the room, so he took this chance to dash to his kitchen and grabbed a sharp knife from the kitchen drawer to defend himself. No way in Hell was he going to let somebody rob him without putting up a fight!

He then turned round and braced himself for a fight that he silently preyed would go his way, his body becoming tense. "Alright, come out you son-of-a-bitch!" he called to his apartment (in a voice that didn't sound so confident has he would have liked it to sound, due to his nerves getting in the way), to wherever the burglar could be hiding.

But after a few seconds had past, he didn't hear a sound or saw any movement, and after cautiously walking round his apartment, checking all the rooms and the possibilities of where a person could hide, he found that no one was in his apartment except for himself.

But then…how could his door had been chained from the inside? It didn't make any sense. And furthermore, who would want to keep him from going outside and why?

Arthur has had a few enemies in the past but he had never thought they were bad enough to hold a long time grudge against him that would require chaining his front door in revenge. Arthur slowly walked up to his front door and examined the chains and lock on it, feeling puzzled.

_Is it possible that this could be the work of black magic?_ Arthur wondered, thinking that it was the only logical way (yes, in Arthur's mind, magic was a logical possibility) that his door could had been chained on the inside like this.

Arthur quickly picked up his cell phone that had been left on top of the kitchen counter and his thumb hovered for a brief moment over the buttons as he thought on who he should call for help. In the end he decided that it was best to call the fire department. He punched in the correct number and then held his phone up to his ear.

But he never heard the sound of any ringing, instead all he heard was a dead line. Arthur frowned at his phone and made sure that his phone had got a strong signal. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it, so why wasn't it ringing?

Arthur decided to try a few other numbers that he knew, but they too had the same tone to it. In a desperate pathetic attempt to contact someone for help, he even pressed in a phone number at random to see if that would do anything, but of course it failed.

Arthur cursed angrily out loud and threw his cell phone on the ground in rage. Fortunately it didn't break. He glared down at his phone as if it was to blame for the all the problems in his life and he stared at it as he allowed himself to calm down so he could think clearly about the situation.

After he had stopped feeling the urge to stomp on his phone did he ran his hand through his hair and looked around his apartment helpless, wondering what the hell to do.

Suddenly he noticed his windows. Aha! He could open a window and cry for help!

The young man quickly ran to one of the windows in desperation for the taste of freedom and tried to open it…but he couldn't. He tried to open it as hard as he could, but the window just didn't seem to want to move. Arthur even tried all the other windows in his apartment, but they weren't opening either. Arthur gave a cry out of frustration as he banged his fist on the window when he gave up trying to open them and his knees fell to the bedroom floor.

_There's no way out…I'm never going to get out of here, never_ he miserably thought as he felt all hope of escaping leaving his body, a quiet sob escaping his lips and his eyes becoming shiny from the sensation of oncoming tears. He was going to die here and he knew it.

Arthur was a prisoner in his own home…

He faintly wondered if anyone from the outside would miss him and he figured they wouldn't much. Well, he thought that his mother might, but he has never been on good terms with his brothers.

As for Arthur's father, he had left his mother when Arthur was in his early teens and he had never seen him since, but his father was also another person who he had never got on with. Arthur's mother was unfortunately never very good when it came to relationships, they had always ended badly.

Strangely, the thought of never seeing his family again made Arthur feel even more depressed about his situation, despite his lack of a strong relationship with them. It made him wish that he had made more of an effort to work out the problems that he had with his brothers and to have a better relationship with his family.

Suddenly a loud crashing sound reached Arthur's ears, alerting him and sending his heart racing. It sounded like it came from his bathroom.

_What was that?_

Frowning, Arthur got to his feet and cautiously left his bedroom. He then suddenly realized that he had abandoned the knife back in his living room. The young male cursed under his breath at his foolish forgetfulness, but felt that it was too late to go back for it.

Bracing himself for what lay beyond the door; Arthur grabbed the door knob with a slightly shaky hand and suddenly burst into his bathroom…But no one was in his bathroom except for himself.

Oh, and a newly gaping black hole that had been left by someone…or something.

Arthur stared in bemused amazement at the sight.

_How the hell did that get there?_

He slowly walked up to it, his frown deepening. As he got nearer, he was sure he could hear whispers but his ears couldn't really make out what they were and there was what sounded like sobbing coming from within the hole.

The young man could not help but feel curious at what was in there, yet at the same cautious at what _might_ be in there too. There were so many possibilities that could be waiting for him at the other end, but yet it looked like it was his only chance of getting out of his apartment.

It was either go through the hole to get any chance of freedom or staying put in his apartment and eventually starve to death or die from lack of oxygen, depending on which got to him first. Arthur was not planning to die an early death, even if his life was pretty depressing as it was.

So, Arthur decided that his best option was to go through the hole. He climbed into the hole and started to crawl on his front to travel deeper inside.

As his body started to disappear within the darkness of the hole, he suddenly felt a strange, invisible force pulling on his body, causing him to travel within the tunnel of the hole at an alarming speed, yet his body still managed to stay safe.

Arthur cried out loud in alarm and fear as his body seemed to fly with ease along the never-ending tunnel, feeling and hearing the wind souring past his ears as the forced continued to pull him along towards the light at the end of the tunnel.

And then, everything went black…

When Arthur regained conscious and opened his eyes, he saw nothing but a gray sky. Frowning, he sat up and studied his surroundings, wondering where the hell he was.

Before him he found himself in an unfamiliar area, surrounded in a strange hazy mist that caused Arthur to be unable to see ten feet in front of him. From what he could make out within the mist, it looked like he was on a mountain road.

He got to his feet and turned round, where before him stood a big, old black wooden sign with yellow, slightly wore out writing on it that was just beside the road.

It read;

Welcome to

Silent Hill

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Okay, I'm not too overly pleased with this chapter, mainly because of the excuse that I made for the reason why Arthur left Alfred. I know, it has a few plot holes in it and it's not very realistic, but I felt that it would count for some delicious anguish to happen, mostly on Alfred's side.**

**My second idea was to have Alfred and Arthur to keep in touch after Arthur left but then one day Alfred doesn't reply for a month or something that causes Arthur to worry about his friend.**

**But I then felt that it wouldn't have the same anguish effects if I went with my second idea, plus I wanted to keep the other residents of Silent Hill a secret (as I imagine that if they did keep in touch, Alfred would have blabbed to him about what is going on and the people in it and I didn't want that as I wanted to keep the mystery of Silent Hill and to Arthur not knowing anything about the characters that he shall meet along the way in the story, you know?).**

**But if any of my readers have any better ideas of how I could make the excuse more realistic without losing the anguish or the mystery of Silent Hill then that would be very much helpful and I will love you long time xD**

**Oh and there might be some mistakes as I have no idea what's happened to my beta person that checks my chapters D:**

**And I'm sorry that this chapter was taking so long to upload, it was mainly because I've been waiting for my beta to give me the thumps up that it's okay to post it, but she hasn't replied in ages about it so I decided to just go ahead and upload it after months of waiting.**

**But it's okay now because I have a new beta reader! 8D**

**Other than that…I guess in this chapter we get a look at Arthur's life in this chapter. As well as a depressed drunk, I also seen Arthur as a violent drunk too (because, you know, our binge drinking youth culture…) and I wanted to tell the reader that Arthur was a bit of a "wild child" when he was a teenager and sort of fell into the wrong crowd until he got sent to jail. I guess I wanted to show his delinquent side but I don't know if I had done a good job of it. And good God I've made Arthur's life so depressing and lonely, I'm surprised he hasn't committed suicide yet xD;;**

**EDITED: 15/11/11**

**I've decided to change the story round a bit, but hopefully not too much. Just explaining the reason why you might see this on your e-mail notification because I've edited this chapter. I'm also going to edit the other chapters too. So yeah, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this! I felt the story needed a revamp after plotting over things, you know? Although, I haven't changed a lot for this chapter…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Midnight Illusions**

**Chapter Four**

Arthur stared at the sign before him. Silent Hill, the very town where he use to spend his pleasant days with Alfred. He frowned, wondering how the Hell he could have been in one country and had arrived in another. Before he had jumped through the hole in his bathroom he had been in England, and now he had arrived in America, to the very place he had been thinking of traveling to only a short while earlier. Arthur could not help but feel suspicious, unable to believe it could be a coincidence he had arrived at the same place he had desired to go and had been reminiscing about only moments before.

'Maybe this is all just a dream…it has to be,' Arthur thought. There was no way on Earth this could be possible; it was like something out of the Twilight Zone. He must still be snoring away on that couch with a hangover back in his apartment and has yet to wake, his front door completely unchained. He tried pinching himself, but it failed to do anything. _'I guess…. I'll wake up eventually,'_ Arthur thought as he took his first steps into Silent Hill.

Seeing as his mind and body were refusing to return to the waking world just yet, he thought he may as well see what this dream had in store for him until he decided to come back to reality. However, he was not exactly sure if dreaming about the past would be a bad thing or a good thing. On one hand, it would mean Arthur would get to live in and experience all the good times he had with Alfred within his memories. He had done so many times before. On the other hand, when he did wake up he would feel nothing but loneliness and his heart sinking at the fact it was all just a dream and not real.

Usually when Arthur had dreams about Alfred, it would make him feel depressed and he would turn to alcohol for comfort. He would make himself drunk enough to forget all about Alfred and the past. People whom encountered Arthur on those sorts of days usually judged him to be a depressed alcoholic, but Arthur really did not see a problem with it. After all, everyone had a way to try and escape from reality every now and then, and Arthur's tools for escapism were with mainly alcohol.

_'__What's with all this fog?__'_ the male wondered as he gazed around him. The dense mist hung over the world like a white sheet over a corpse. It felt like he was cut off from the world, almost suffocating. Arthur had never known the lakeside town to be so badly foggy before. The entire lake would have had to evaporate to create something like this…

As Arthur pushed through the countless water vapors that swirled through the air, he noticed the buildings were slowly emerging from the fog and rising into his view as he walked further on the deserted road. The only sound heard consisting of the echoes of his footsteps as his shoes made contact with the concrete. There were no birds twittering, cars being driven or townspeople as they went about their daily lives. Arthur looked around him and even peeked into a nearby shop window with the hope of seeing somebody – _anybody_. Yet the area was completely void of any signs of life, like a ghost town. It made Arthur feel uneasy at how desolate and silent the place was.

He could not seem to shake off the feeling of being watched. _'What happened here?'_ Arthur wondered anxiously. He decided to continue down the street with the hope of seeing some signs of life in the seemingly dead town. He considered perhaps heading to the orphanage to get some information on the whereabouts of Alfred; if he could remember where the orphanage was. He hoped they had not moved after the fire incident.

He had arrived at the corner of the street, and before him on the road lay suspicious looking puddles of a red substance. Arthur's green eyes grew wide at the sight as his mind linked it to a word. _'Oh God… is that blood!' _He screamed in his head, swallowing hard. Something had definitely gone wrong in this town. His gaze rose from the blood and stared into the fog. Barely visible within the mist, he saw what looked like the silhouette of a walking human figure. Perhaps he could get more information from he or she about what had happened to Silent Hill and where Alfred was.

Arthur began pursuit of the stranger, his feet kicking into a run. However, he had not been running long when he was suddenly forced to abruptly stop, realizing he was at the edge of the road. It was as if a giant had torn out a chunk of it, leaving nothing but a destroyed road and a long drop down into the fog covered abyss. Arthur had to quickly stop himself from taking a step before he would end up falling over that very cliff himself, managing to regain his balance just in time. He took a few paces back away from the cliff's edge, looking in bewilderment upon the damage.

_'Good Lord…what the Hell happened here?' _However, Arthur had no time to ponder the abnormality, abruptly remembering the person he had seen in the fog. He looked around, wondering where the person had disappeared to, when he noticed an alleyway between two buildings. It was located fairly near where the cliff edge was. Believing that might be where the person he had seen had gone to; he headed into the alley and heard the distant creak of what sounded like rusted hinges on a gate being opened.

As he started to run again, Arthur was certain he could hear what sounded like an air-raid siren in the distance. As he ran down the long pathway of the alley, having to turn a few corners here and there, he could hear the siren growing louder and closer, followed by a strange rumbling noise that reminded him of thunder. _'Is there a storm coming?'_ Arthur wondered with slight concern as he arrived at a gate and opened it. As he entered the other half of the path, the sky above him appeared to be getting darker as the sound of the siren carried on. Thankfully, it did not become so dark as to make it extremely difficult to see where he was going. There was still enough light in the sky to help him and guide his way.

_'That's strange._ _Why the Hell is it getting darker?'_ Feeling apprehensive, Arthur carried on in his journey through the alley. Suddenly, a strange odor reached his nostrils and made him gasp and gag. It was an overwhelming smell of copper and metal with a hint of rust and salt mixed within; creating a reek that was awfully sour. Overall, it smelled horrible to Arthur; it was not a pleasant scent in the least. Yet, it was somewhat familiar to the Brit. To him, it smelled a bit like the aroma of blood (from being in fights, he had grown accustomed to what the smell of his or someone else's blood was like when it stained his clothes), only it was worse.

As he journeyed deeper, the odor grew stronger and became so powerful that he even started to retch slightly from the horrible stench. Suddenly, he came near the end of the path and saw before him a blood-stained stretcher with a pool of blood surrounding it. Arthur's eyes grew wide in horror at the sight, his apprehension increasing significantly. Where were the police? Why hadn't a resident reported this? Despite the unusual and unnerving scene, Arthur carried on, taking the pathway to his right and following it, discovering more streaks of blood along the way. He swallowed, hoping there was a perfectly innocent explanation for so much blood. Perhaps the person he had seen in the fog had been badly injured.

Turning a corner, he continued to follow the path only to stumble upon more large pools of blood. Arthur suddenly stopped in his tracks as another foul smell crashed over him, gagging hard on it. He recognized the smell of blood, but there were other odors in the air that were a mystery to his olfactory senses. The young man took a few more steps forward and he instantly realized what the odors were, freezing in his steps.

Before him lay the torso of a person.

The skin and hair had been completely stripped off and the face had been horribly disfigured. Arthur gasped in shock as his hand flew up to his mouth at the gruesome sight, swallowing hard to try and keep the small amount of food he had in his stomach as his breathing became more rapid. Now he knew what the other smells had been.

It was of decaying bodies and death.

His eyes then rose up and he saw at the end on the pathway, hung up against the chained fence that blocked his way was another dead body that resembled a warped crucifix. The feet and hands looked as if they had been torn off from the body, the skin had been burned in places, marks caused by weapons of torture littered the skin, and some parts of the flesh were decaying. Above the waist it seemed all flesh, muscle, and organs had been removed from the torso, leaving nothing but a bloody spine and a cracked rib cage. The eyes had been gouged out, leaving nothing but two large, black holes where the eyeballs had been with dried trails of blood staining the cheeks and the lips of the mouth had been painfully sewn together. Like the other body, the head had no hair, but instead it looked like the flesh had been torn away, leaving nothing but a yellow-white skull for the top of the head where visible cracks could be seen.

Feeling extremely disturbed and unable to withstand the gruesome, bloody sight, Arthur quickly kneeled as he felt the familiar sensation of something rising up and released the contents of his stomach onto the dirty, bloodied ground. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, noticing that his hands were trembling badly.

_'Oh my God…oh my God…What the Hell… how did…What kind of person would do this?' _Trying to regain his composure, he slowly regulated his breathing and got his emotions under control. After a while, he carefully straightened up and decided it was best to leave the premises as quickly as possible before he would suffer the same fate as the unfortunate souls he had just encountered. He wondered where the person he had seen earlier had disappeared to. He didn't think it was possible for the person to have been the crucified body in such a short amount of time it had taken for him to arrive. The passage was a dead end and Arthur was certain he hadn't seen any side streets, so there was no way the person could have escaped. _'Could it have been my imagination?' _

Arthur turned around and was about to backtrack out of the long alley when he suddenly noticed tiny movements within the shadows around him. They emerged from the darkness, revealing small, child-like, faceless beings that made strange noises, each chillingly sounding very much like the wail or cry of an infant. They resembled human children, but only in the most basic of ways. Their skin was jaundiced, wrinkled, and stretched, as if they were wearing leather. Where their faces should have been was merely a gaping, bloody hole, and they had long talons where fingers should be.

Arthur's emerald eyes grew as large as saucers, his pupils miniaturizing in shock and terror upon sight of these strange, disturbing creatures. Fearing for his life, Arthur started to run around the small group of grey children just as the one closest to him made a cry and lunged forward in an unsuccessful attempt to grab at his waist, the man escaping just in time.

Suddenly, he felt one of the other grey children grab at his waist, underestimating the creatures' amount of speed and in effect dooming himself. Arthur cried out in alarm as he felt its cold arms wrap around him, feeling its long nails trying to dig hard past his garments and into his flesh. His heart pounding hard against his chest, Arthur desperately tried to remove its arms from him, discovering it had a hard grip on him.

"Get off!" he demanded almost pleadingly, forgetting completely that they might not even understand him at all. The fear was clear in his voice as he tried to get away. More of the grey children began surrounding him, trying to grab at his body.

He was forced to turn to the last resort, something he did not want to do because of their infant cries. _'Remember, they aren't human, they aren't human!'_ he kept telling himself over and over again. He turned his hands into fists and punched the first grey child that had attached itself to him. It stumbled from the hit and fell to the ground, releasing him instantly. Turning his attention to the rest of them, he elbowed and punched anymore that were clinging to him.

Suddenly, he felt a terrible pain in his stomach, causing him to stop in his tracks. He looked down and realized that one of the grey children had stabbed a knife into him, the warm blood staining his sweater vest at an alarming rate. The grey child then removed the knife, causing another wave of pain to wash over him, and thrust it in another place, this time higher than where the previous wound had been.

Arthur cried out loudly as he felt the cold blade pieced through his flesh, his muscles and perhaps even his organs. He blinked back tears as he felled his knees, unwillingly falling onto the ground as his body became weak from the loss of blood. Despite this, he was still determined to fight off the creatures with all the strength he had remaining, pathetic has it might seem to some.

However, he felt another knife dig into his flesh yet again, only this time it was stabbed where the heart would be. His body throbbing painfully and feeling weak and dazed, he collapsed fully onto the ground, feeling the long claws of the grey children tearing through his clothes and digging into his skin so hard it drew blood. Yet he hardly felt the pain anymore, strangely numb at last.

_'Oh God, I'm going to die…I'm going to die!'_ His vision was blurred by tears, though he told himself it was because of how much blood he had lost.

There had been so much he had wanted to do with his life…. so much he had wanted to see…. but now it had all been wasted…

He knew now that this could not be a dream. Never before had he felt so much pain in his dreams and never before had his unconscious mind managed to conjure up such disturbing yet vivid images.

Slowly, Arthur felt his mind and body slip away, everything around him becoming black as he breathed his last breath.

_'…Is this what death feels like?'_

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Don't worry folks! If you guys have played the first Silent Hill game (or have watched the walkthrough on YouTube like I have) you will know what happens next! And if you haven't…well, I don't want to say anything in case it ruins the next chapter for you…oh, and there shall be another Hetalia character in the next chapter! 8D**

**And a big thank you to 15animefreak15 for beta reading this chapter for me!~**

**EDITED: 04/01/12**

**I've decided to change the story round a bit, but hopefully not too much. Just explaining the reason why you might see this on your e-mail notification because I've edited this chapter. I'm also going to edit the other chapters too. So yeah, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this! I felt the story needed a revamp after plotting over things and reading things that have given me new ideas.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Midnight Illusions**

**Chapter Five**

Arthur suddenly woke with a start, quickly looking around with panic and alertness clear in his eyes. He was aware he was breathing heavily and felt beads of sweat crawling down his body beneath his clothes. Yet he quickly calmed after his brain became aware there were no monsters attacking him and he certainly was not dead. He was completely safe and unharmed, although Arthur could not help but still feel a bit on edge.

Taking in his surroundings, he realized he was sitting on a couch, inside what looked like the building of an abandoned bar/café. He noticed everything was caked in a layer of dust and dirt from being unoccupied and neglected for so long.

He glanced outside the window and saw the familiar, grey mist covering the same deserted town of Silent Hill. Judging by the light outside, it was still day time. The sky was no longer dark like before. Arthur frowned and looked down at his body, searching and feeling for any blood or wounds, but there were none. He delicately felt the skin on his hands, the fabric of his clothes, the hair on his head and the leather of the couch he was sitting on.

Okay, so he felt real and was very much alive and everything around him looked to be real and felt real. Then how could he still be in Silent Hill? If this was a dream, why was he not awake and back at his apartment?

Arthur had thought he must have been in a dream. Now he was not so sure anymore. He could no longer tell which parts he had been dreaming and which parts could have been real. Or was it possibly that he was still dreaming? Then how could a dream look and feel so real like this?

Not to mention those monsters. Arthur had good knowledge of the mythical creatures that enjoyed hanging out in the human world, as well as the ones that mostly spend their time in the spiritual world, and never had he come across such creatures like those before. Was it possible he had somehow entered another dimension?

Come to think of it, he had not even seen one of his usual mystical friends since he woke up in his apartment, which to Arthur seemed like very unusual behavior. Back at his apartment, his mythical friends would usually visit him at some point after waking up from his drunken slumber and pop in for a pleasant chat, or if he was out somewhere they (usually the more curious beings, like the fairies) would follow him to see what he was up to and sometimes even start trying to get to talk with him (but that was something that Arthur didn't try to do when out in public, although there had been times where he yelled out angrily at a certain few fairies when they had managed to annoy him. He did not want to be labeled as the local loony – that was the last thing he needed).

Understandably, this concerned Arthur. Maybe they could not find him or perhaps it could be something of a supernatural force was holding them back (and it had to be a pretty powerful one at that) from coming to this place. Hell, maybe that same thing was the reason Arthur had arrived at Silent Hill in the first place and could not leave; some powerful magic was holding him here.

The British man grid his teeth together and buried his head in his hands, tugging at the short locks of hair as he groaned with frustration and confusion, feeling like he was going to tear it out.

Just what the hell was going on?

Arthur concluded it was probably best if he did not think about his situation too much, otherwise he would get a terrible migraine and would end up doing something to himself he knew he would later regret if he even tried to comprehend what was happening around him.

Suddenly, Arthur heard footsteps entering the room and his gaze looked up, slightly fearing for a brief moment it could be another one of those monsters he had seen and fought earlier. Seconds later the Brit relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw who it was. Before him stood a young man that looked around Arthur's own age. He had short, white hair and what looked to be red eyes (although they appeared to be more of a dark red and his hair more on the grey side due to the lack of any light in the building except for the very little light from outside) and was wearing an American blue police uniform. The color of his eyes reminded Arthur of blood, causing him to shudder slightly at the memory of seeing those mutilated bodies in the alley and remembering the awful smell. The man crossed his arms and smirked at him, although just what or why he was smiling like that Arthur had no clue. Still, it was reassuring to finally see another living person in this town. This albino man seemed to have an air of arrogance and mischievousness about him.

"Hey man, are you okay?" he asked Arthur, aware he had a distinctive German accent as he spoke.

Oh great, not a bloody German! _'This day just keeps getting better and better...'_ Arthur thought sarcastically with a scowl of his huge eyebrows, internally sighing from his misfortunes. Today was definitely not a good day.

Arthur was not exactly fond of German people (well, to put it politely) due to his unpleasant experiences when meeting them on numerous occasions, usually when he went on holiday. The Brit found them to be extremely rude, arrogant and stubborn and sometimes even just a bit too serious for his liking. Plus, when he had been on holiday, they always hogged the sun beds with their damn towels!

None the less, Arthur attempted to remain civil with this man. "Well, other than feeling like I've been hit by a truck, I think I'm fine," he stated casually, smiling weakly.

The man laughed. "That's good to know," he replied with a grin. The albino then outstretched his hand for Arthur to take. "The name is the awesome Gilbert Beilschmidt!" he announced proudly.

Arthur could not help but grimace at Gilbert's hugely arrogant ego, but he quickly changed that into a polite smile as he shook the other man's hand.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Arthur Kirkland," he politely replied.

"Cool, that's an awesome accent you've got, but it's not as nearly as awesome as mine!" Gilbert declared arrogantly. Arthur sighed, closed his eyes and gently rubbed his temples with his fingers, feeling a headache coming on. He swore he could feel his brain cells slowly dying off just being in the mere presence of this annoyingly arrogant, egoistical man.

"Hey, do you want a drink? You look like you could use something strong," Gilbert said as Arthur looked up to see the other man had hopped across the counter of the bar and was helping himself to the alcohol behind it. At the mention of it, Arthur pulled a face and even felt a little nauseous.

"No thank you, I think I've had enough for one day," he mumbled as he rubbed his eye.

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself, just means more for me," he said as he grabbed a few bottles of alcohol. "This place is a ghost town, may as well collect what I can for free, you know?"

The albino male returned to Arthur and sat down on the couch next to him, placing the bottles of alcohol on the table in front of them.

"How did I get here?" Arthur asked the other young man. Gilbert shrugged in response. "Beats me, you were already here when I came in" he replied simply. A smirk then spread across the German's lips. "You must had been really wasted if you don't know how you got here" he said and chuckled slightly. Arthur frowned at Gilbert laughing at him, but decided to let it slide, not feeling up to starting an argument.

"So, where are you from?" Arthur asked as he watched the other male open a bottle of vodka and taking a swig. After finishing, Gilbert promptly swung his arm onto the back of the couch and crossed one leg over the other.

"Well, I was originally born in Germany, the awesome East side to be exact," Gilbert began; an obvious tone of pride was within his voice as he talked about his birthplace. "But I and my brother later moved to America, Brahms after my brother got a promotion with his boring office job. I then got myself a job as an awesome police officer! Been working this shit for nearly a year now and it's pretty awesome, everyone is shit scared of me back in Brahms" the German bragged shamelessly.

"I was assigned to come to Silent Hill because we haven't heard from anyone in ages. When I came here the place was completely deserted! It was like…everyone vanished out of thin air" Gilbert recalled with a troubled frown.

Arthur gazed at the other male with understanding. "Yeah, that's the impression I got too when I came here" the Brit agreed. "It's rather unsettling" he admitted and Gilbert made a noise of agreement, both of them wondering what had happened to the citizens of Silent Hill.

"So, what brings you to Silent Hill?" asked Gilbert simply, quickly changing the subject to something more lighthearted. His red eyes looked at Arthur with interest as he took another sip of his vodka.

Arthur ran a hand though his already messy hair. "I'm not quite sure…. Well, I guess I'm here to see an old friend," he murmured.

Gilbert frowned. "Here? In Silent Hill? What makes you think he's even here? In case you haven't noticed, this place is completely empty of any life forms! Well, except for the two of us"

Okay, maybe Arthur's answer had not been the best, for Gilbert did have a point. The place was a ghost town, so it would be very difficult and foolish to find someone unless you knew exactly where they were and if they were even still living in the town.

Arthur felt his cheeks turning pink at his embarrassing mistake, but knew he could not exactly tell Gilbert the whole story on how he actually got here, knowing the German would not believe him and just label him as crazy.

The British man cleared his throat. "Instinct. I just have a feeling that he's here somewhere," he replied curtly, which was not exactly a lie seeing as a part of him was feeling that Alfred was still somewhere in Silent Hill. He had a feeling the boy had never left the place.

The German shrugged his shoulders. "If you say so. I've never really believed in all that psychic shit myself, its nothing but a con," Gilbert replied airily as he went into the pocket of his pants to fish out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter. With one hand, the other holding his bottle of vodka, he grabbed one of the sticks and placed it between his lips and then lit the other end using his lighter, the glow from the flame casting an orange-gold colour on the German's face for a brief moment.

"Want one?" Gilbert offered Arthur as he placed the cigarette between his fingers and blew the smoke out from his mouth. Arthur looked down at the packet of cigarettes. He had not actually smoked in a long time, but a part of him was now feeling the urge to have one, especially to help him relax after the incident with the monsters.

"Yeah, sure. Thanks," Arthur replied as he helped himself to one of the cigarettes and used Gilbert's lighter to set the end aflame. He took a drag and blew the smoke out between his lips as he closed his eyes, feeling the drug already kicking in and making him feel calmer. He opened his eyes and looked down at the cigarette being held in between his index and middle finger.

"So…. what's this friend of yours like?" Gilbert asked him. Arthur stared off into the distance as he thought back to that sweet little boy with blue eyes.

"I haven't seen him since we were kids, but back then he was such an adorable child, the kind that could just brighten up your day with a simple smile. He was always so eager and curious about anything and everything, always asking questions and off exploring, sometimes even into dangerous areas like a junk yard. I remember one time he even asked me why rabbits had ears, it was so cute".

A soft but sad smile spread across Arthur's lips at the memory of the scene he had been telling. "We used to spend all our time together as much as we could and the fact that both of us were pretty much outcasts of the town brought us even closer together…. He was like the little brother that I never had, and I wanted to be the best big brother he could possibly have," Arthur admitted quietly.

Gilbert stared thoughtfully at Arthur, a look of silent understanding in his red eyes as the British man was staring at the swirls of smoke that were escaping from their cigarettes and into the air above them, his mind wandering back to the past, to Alfred. "You really love him, don't you?"

Arthur nodded and looked at the albino German. "Yes, I really do," he admitted sincerely. "I wonder what kind of man he's grown into…." Arthur thought aloud as he tried to picture what the present Alfred might look like now. A short but comfortable silence fell upon the two males as they were both left to their own personal thoughts.

_'Heh, I bet he still has that terribly stubborn cowlick that never seems to go flat.'_ Arthur thought fondly at the memory of always trying to get Alfred's trademark cowlick to stay down, but it would comically spring back up like a jack-in-the-box.

Arthur briefly glanced over at the albino and saw to his surprise the German had a sad, longing expression on his face as he was reminiscing about something unknown to Arthur. The British man found himself curious to know what it was, yet he did not want to pry into anything where it would be unwelcome to the other man.

He cleared his throat loudly, which seemed to do the trick of snapping Gilbert out of his thoughts.

"Hey, you okay?" Arthur asked him politely with a small amount of sympathy in his tone.

The other male instantly put on a confident grin, but Arthur could tell it was faked. "Ahaha, yeah, I'm just fine! Why wouldn't I be? Besides, I'm Gilbert the Awesome. I'm always feeling great, and nothing can bring me down!" exclaimed the German arrogantly with his huge grin, even following it up with another laugh.

Yet Arthur could tell his laugh was an act, he was now using his ego to mask what he was truly worried or sad about, it was just too plainly obvious. However, Arthur did not pry any further into it, instead deciding to let it slide. It was not really any of his business, and Arthur was not quite interested enough to ask.

"I see," Arthur lied as he put out the rest of his cigarette using the ash tray that was on the table.

"I should get going," Arthur said politely as he stood from the couch, feeling more eager than before to find his best friend. He did not want to be rude, but he just wanted to stop with the polite conversation and get moving to find Alfred.

"Oh yeah, me too!" agreed Gilbert as he too stood and put out the rest of his cigarette and finished the remainder of his drink. "Hey, do you need a ride to anywhere? I have my car out at the front of the place and it wouldn't be much of a big deal to me," Gilbert offered.

Upon hearing Gilbert was offering him a ride, Arthur thought it was best to take up the offer as it would save a lot of time trying to get there. Plus, there was the chance Gilbert knew where the orphanage was. "Sure, that would be great," he agreed with a small, grateful smile. "Do you know where the orphanage is?"

Gilbert paused for a moment as he thought about where it was. "Oh yeah, I think it's in the woods part of the area. I remember seeing a sign for it before coming here. I don't think it's too far away."

Thus the pair left the café and headed out into the foggy streets of Silent Hill, where there was an American police car parked on the curb of the sidewalk. Arthur looked around the streets cautiously as he opened the car door of the passenger's side, searching for anything that looked like monsters.

"Hey, are you getting in or what?" called Gilbert from the driver's side, interrupting Arthur's search and coaxing the Brit got into the passenger seat, putting on his seatbelt.

Gilbert started up the car and began to drive down the road, the two men sitting in silence. Arthur was not really in the mood to make small talk with the German anymore, so instead his green eyes gazed outside the window at the deserted, foggy streets. He recognized a few shop signs he remembered visiting from his childhood, only now they had shut down and been abandoned. Thankfully, it seemed Gilbert was not in a talking mood as he turned on the radio and a rock song blasted through the speakers.

Eventually, the car was no longer driving along the road of the town, but had now entered the woodland area. The mist and fog still clung to the car and trees, as if it was following them.

After about twenty minutes, Gilbert stopped the car outside a gate and turned the volume of the radio down. "Here it is," The German declared and Arthur looked outside the window. '_So this is where they have moved to…'_

"Thanks for the lift." Arthur thanked the albino German and shook the other man's hand as he was about to leave.

"No problem. I hope you find your buddy."

"Thanks, have a safe journey" said Arthur before got out of the car.

"Yeah, see ya," replied Gilbert as he gave the Brit a lazy wave of his hand before Arthur shut the car door and watched as Gilbert drove off into the misty fog…

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Okay, I felt this chapter was getting a little long, so I decided to end this chapter here. And I am SOOOO sorry that this took so long! College, Gaia Online role playing and video games kinda distracted me…again. That, and I kinda had trouble with coming up with my own dialogue between Arthur and Gilbert, because I am more of a role play writer than a fanfiction writing, so coming up with my own dialogue for more than one character is kinda hard. Also I hope you don't mind having Gilbert being the police cop from the first Silent Hill game, and a corrupted one at that. I just felt Gilbert fit the role and I could also see him being a bad cop at that (not to mention imagining Gilbert being a bad ass corrupted cop is awesome!) and I also felt it would fit well in relation to Arthur's mentioned background with crime and the police. See the connection? In SH2 the characters represented the different parts of James and what he has done, so in this I was kinda trying to make that happen between Arthur and Gilbert too.**

**Also, I would like to thank 15animefreak15 again for beta and proof-reading this chapter!**

**EDITED: 04/01/12**

**I've decided to change the story round a bit, but hopefully not too much. Just explaining the reason why you might see this on your e-mail notification because I've edited this chapter. I'm also going to edit the other chapters too. So yeah, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this! I felt the story needed a revamp after plotting over things and reading things that have given me new ideas.**


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